The awards recognize the top scientific and technological innovations of the
past year as judged by a team of independent experts for R&D magazine. Argonne
scientists have won 108 R&D 100 awards since they were first introduced
in 1964.

"I want to congratulate all of this year's winners on their awards
and to thank them for their work," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. "The
large number of winners from the Department of Energy's national labs
every year is a clear sign that our labs are doing some of the most innovative
research in the world. This work benefits us all by enhancing America's
competitiveness, ensuring our security, providing new energy solutions and expanding
the frontiers of our knowledge. Our national labs are truly national treasures,
and it is wonderful to see their work recognized once again."

Argonne's p Steradian Transmission X-ray Detection System is an innovative
transformation of a technology used by the scientific community for 40 years.
This R&D 100 winner significantly improves the ability of researchers to
study nanomaterials. For the majority of scanning electron microscopes, transmission
electron microscopes and scanning-transmission electron microscopes used today,
more than 98 percent of the available X-ray signal from the microscopes is neglected.

Under conditions where signal is plentiful, this loss may not be a major issue.
However, for studying minute quantities of material or materials that are beam-sensitive,
such as nanoparticles and catalysts, or during time-sensitive measurements,
the magnitude of the available signal becomes a limiting factor in an analysis.

Argonne's technology solves this problem by increasing the detection
of available signal during micro/nanoscale analysis of ultra-small particles
and films as much as 500 times. This is particularly important when using the
sub-nanometer beams available in today's atomic resolution electron-optical
beam lines.

The advent of high-quality, third-generation X-ray sources, such as Argonne's
Advanced Photon Source, have provided new advantages to protein crystallographers.
One such benefit is the use of mini X-rays beams, which can be created in two
ways: by using optical elements to reduce the focus size of the incident X-ray
beam, or by using collimating devices to sample portions of a focused beam.

The Hard X-ray Mini-beam Quad Collimator consists of three essential components:
a uni-body quad collimator, a magnetically indexed kinematic mount and a precision
motion system. The system provides micron-sized beams of various sizes to a
sample. It is compact, durable and economical, and its motions are reproducible
and precise at the micron level. It can be placed on beamlines or other X-ray
sources.

Funding was provided by National Institute of Health's National Institute
of General Medical Sciences and National Cancer Institute.

The Hard X-ray Mini-beam Quad Collimator was jointly developed by a team from
Argonne and the Life Sciences Institute of University of Michigan.